Bathinda, June 6
Forty years is a long period to fight against the irresponsive and insensitive bureaucracy. This fight becomes more difficult, especialy if the crusader is an elderly widow, rustic, illiterate and abandoned by her kin.

However, Kartar Kaur, a widow, who has crossed 90, fought a long drawn legal battle, in the twilight years of her life, against the Indian Railways. Her fight began from the lower court and went to the to apex court of country and she finally succeeded in getting her dues in the shape of family pension and gratuity from the Railways, which was denied to her on flimsy grounds for decades.

Her husband Kartara Singh worked as a gateman for 26 years continuously in Bathinda district after his recruitment in 1944 and was given compulsory retirement in 1970 due to physical disability. He subsequently died in 1971. Kartar kaur managed to get full family pension after about 40 years. She is now staying in Pharwahi village of Barnala district.

Penniless and abandoned by her near and dear ones, Kartar Kaur was helped by a battery of lawyers including Amarjit Singh Kaushal, Kamal Kant Dixit (Bathinda), YR Sharma and Manjeet Chawla (Supreme Court), in achieving victory in her long battle against the thick skinned mandarins.

The turning point in her life came on May 24, 2011, when the Vacation Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justice GS Singhvi and Justice Chandramauli K. Prasad, directed the Railways to ensure the payment of family pension to Kartar Kaur every month without failing.

The Vacation Bench, while dismissing the special leave petition (SLP) filed by Indian Railways against the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, also ordered that Railway officials would help Kartar Kaur in opening a bank account in her village and ensure that she gets arrears of pension within the time specified.

Kaushal said Kartar Kaur faced many hardships. First, she was never given pension for 16 years by the Railways after the death of her husband. She was again denied pension and other benefits despite the fact that the Railways sanctioned her case for family pension on January 1, 1986.

Kartar Kaur said she had taken a pledge to get her dues from the Railways after she came to know that injustice had been done to her by some Railway officials.

She added that though she had to move from pillar to post, she never greased the palms of officials to get her dues.

"I have bought a house with the amount of gratuity, given to me so far by the Railways," she said with a smile on her wrinkled face. 

Bathinda, June 6
The health condition of a protester, belonging to the AIE Teachers’ Front, Punjab, Charanjit Kaur, whose fast-unto-death, entered its sixth day here today— has started deteriorating. She has been complaining of pain in the abdomen and vomiting and is reportedly even unable to ingest water.

Vice-president of the Alternative Innovative Education (AIE) Teachers Front, Punjab, Reshma Rani claimed that Charanjit's condition was serious as there were traces of blood in her vomit last night.

The SMO of local Civil Hospital Dr Vinod Garg said he had sent Dr Parminder Bansal, a medical specialist, in the morning and Dr Pawan Mittal, a surgeon, in the afternoon to examine Charanjit. He said the doctors had reported to him that her blood pressure and blood sugar were found normal. He said as the girl was complaining of pain in the abdomen, so he had asked a lady doctor to examine her.

The fast-unto-death has been started by the AIE Teachers Front to apply pressure on the state government to accept their demands like regular jobs for AIE teachers who have 
B. Ed. and ETT qualifications, admission to ETT course in July to Plus II pass AIE teachers, and chance to improve the Plus II class to those AIE teachers who have less than 50 per cent marks in Plus II.

The Front warned the government of a befitting reply in case something untoward happened to Charanjit. 

Abohar, June 6
Responding to the news item published in these columns on Monday, the Rajasthan Irrigation Department has sent a team led by assistant engineer Narayan Jyani to the Punjab area to monitor the ongoing lining repair work in the Ferozepur feeder.

Notably, Rs 90 lakh had been released by the state to Punjab Irrigation Department for the project. The Rajasthan Kisan Sangharsh Samiti had resented the absence of the Rajasthan and Punjab officials at the sites.

Meanwhile, the authorities have also released 1250 cusecs of water that would run at 3-feet above the floor bed of the Gang (Bikaner) canal. This would facilitate storing water in drinking water reservoirs as Sriganganagar region continued to sizzle at 47 degree centigrade temperature.

The water supply had been suspended on June 1 to take up the repair of damaged lining in the Ferozepur feeder. Release of water would partly meet the needs to sow cotton in pending area, Samiti spokesman Subhash Sehgal said. The Punjab irrigation officials today assured that release of water would not disrupt pending lining repair works. However, it may take more time to finish the job.

The Samiti today lodged protest with the SDO (Irrigation) Fazilka over the illegal installation of another tubewell on the bank of the Gang canal near village Salamewala.

Scores of such tubewells had been identified during the joint inspection conducted by the senior officials from Rajasthan and Punjab, last year. The Ferozepur district administration had assured to remove these but action was dumped under political pressure, Samiti spokesman Subhash Sehgal regretted.

Bathinda, June 6
On the directions of the health authorities, Drug Inspector, Bathinda, Lakhwant Singh today inspected two medicine shops, being run by District Red Cross Society in the premises of the Civil Hospital here. One shop is being run as the Red Cross Medical Store and the other as Jan Aushadhi Generic Drug Store.

The Drug Inspector said that during the inspection, he found the pharmacist absent at the Red Cross Medical Store, so he had sent a report in this regard to the Drug Controller, Punjab. Civil Surgeon Dr Neelam Bajaj said it was a routine inspection. She said according to the Drug Inspector, the persons running the medicine shops, produced all the bills of the medicines as demanded by him. — TNS

Bathinda: The students of Harbhajan Institute here have excelled in the AIEEE the results of which were declared a day earlier. Director of the institute Prof. Harbhajan Singh said that in AIEEE, Akashdeep Singh got 5th position in Haryana and 255th rank in AIR. Shray got 70th rank and Gagandeep got 299th rank in Punjab. In SC/BC category, Parshant got 152nd rank, Saurav got 657th and Rahul got 797th rank at the all-India level.

Adesh Institutions: The Adesh Group of Institutions announced incentives for engineering and polytechnic students on Monday. Director-principal Dr SS Bhatti, Director (Technical) Gurfateh Singh Gill said graded scholarships for AIEEE rank holders would be awarded. — TNS

Bathinda, June 6
Following the upgradation of the Bhisiana IAF station near here, Air Commodore V Gaur today assumed the command of the station. He took over the command from the outgoing Station Commander Group Captain B Balachandran.

A ceremonial parade was held on the occasion. His wife Sonali Gaur took over as the President, AFWWA (Local) from Preetha Balachandran.

Group Captain Balachandran, who played a pivotal role in elevating the station to the newer heights during his tenure, expressed a sense of satisfaction at the overall progress of the station and inspired the personnel to strive for excellence in all spheres.

Air Commodore Gaur was commissioned in the Indian Air Force on 22 December 1983 in flying branch (fighter stream). He is an alumnus of the prestigious Defence Services Staff College and has held various key appointments in his career spanning 28 years.

After assuming the command, Gaur and Sonali Gaur interacted with the station personnel at various levels and impressed upon them to continue the good work.

Abohar, June 6
The discontent over the arrest of BJP councillor Ravi Makkar under the NDPS Act by the local police recently, visibly cast its shadow on the procession that was organised by the saffron party to express resentment on the Baba Ramdev episode here today.

Makkar, now lodged in jail, had alleged that he has been falsely implicated due to factionalism in the party.

Even when the ruling alliance partner BJP runs the Municipal Council and Market Committee as well, only a handful of workers assembled at Geeta Mandir to join the march that was led by district president Arun Narang.

The party also failed in mobilising people for participation even when rickshaws fitted with loudspeakers, without valid permission, moved across the town on Sunday and today also.

The workers later burnt an effigy of the UPA government on reaching Sadar Bazaar Chowk and also staged dharna at Sumer Ground. Former state president Prof BL Rinwa was present at the dharna.

Barnala, June 6
Annoyed over the failure of the police to arrest the killer of a youth, the residents of the Tajo village blocked the Bathinda-Chandigarh road at Tapa on Monday. The village boy Baljeet Singh (21) was shot dead on Sunday by another resident of the area over some land dispute.

The residents of the village demanded immediate arrest of the identified killer and blocked the highway for hours outside the Tapa police station. — TNS 

Moga, June 6
Dr Suresh Malhotra took over as the officiating principal of the DM College (Moga) this morning. Earlier, principal Dr Deepak Kaushal was removed from his post by the DM College Managing Committee after having his act and conduct was not found to be satisfactory during his probation period. Advocate Satpal Gupta, president of the managing committee, said after taking over as officiating principal of the institute, Dr Malhotra has also distributed the salaries to the college staff while exercising his power of the bank operation.

The sacked principal approached the managing committee members along with the principal and senior faculty members of some educational institutes to present his point of view for a review of his termination orders but it was learnt that the committee refused to listen to him. The committee said he should give his representation in writing, which would be discussed in the next meeting.